By CHRIS NICHOLS -- SLAM! SportsHi Chris: Keep up the great work! I'm in a points only pool (1 goal = 1 point, 1 assist = 1 point) that also counts goalie wins (1 point) and goalie shutouts (5 points). This pool is a keeper pool that allows a max. of 8 roster moves per season. It consists of 13 members, and will end after the next 2 playing seasons are completed.

Each year we are only allowed to keep 6 players. Which 6 would you protect?

Theodore, Thornton, Jagr, Jovo, McCabe and either Cujo (If he's in net for DET next year) or Marleau.

Hey Chris, I follow your column daily. I have been in first in my 12
team H2H Keeper Pool all year and am heading into first place with a bye
week. As our trade and waiver wire deadlines have already passed I am
looking forward to next year and who will I keep off my current roster
(allowed 3 Keepers). I have the following to choose from: Defensemen:
Aucoin, Klee, Markov (Mon), Ohlund, Timonen; Forwards: Arnott,
Alfredsson, Datsyuk, Gomez, Kariya, Lecavalier, Morrison, Nolan,
Richards, Sundin, Tanguay; Goalies: Theodore, Cloutier. I was originally
leaning towards Datsyuk, Lecavalier and Tanguay but with Richards
heating up I am torn. What combination would you go with?

Aaron Spott

I think your original picks are fine. Alfredsson has plenty of life left too though and would also factor into the decision. While I like Richards, I don't think he's in the same class as those four for fantasy production.

Chris - thanks again for the advice this year. I'm still fighting to get to 1st place in my one league (I was as far back as 24 points, now I've cut the lead to 15 and I'm close to a few more points, 2nd place) and I'm 20 points ahead in 1st in my other league. good advice on stashing Kovy on the bench. I like him on the Habs. I picked up Koivu as well for kicks.

my questions...again, typical rotis yahoo FHL includ. PIM's. thinking for next year. can keep 3 players. who would you keep hold of? Sundin, Lecav, Iginla, Heatley, Tkachuk, Elias, Schneider, Turco, Kiprusoff, Jovocop. also I read in a recent column a guy asking a similar question and you didn't choose Tkachuk in your advice. are you thinking he's not worth his ranking? last question, based on the guys above, would you try to deal 1 or 2 for someone in the league to stash a keeper for next year?

thanks again for your always timely advice.

You've got some really nice options here. I'd narrow it down to four guys and decide in the summer, if possible: Iginla, Heatley, Kipper, and Turco.
I think Tkachuk is fantastic in fantasy leagues with PIM's, but I don't rank him ahead of any of these guys. I'm just trying to look objectively at the players put in front of me and decide, based on league categories, who would best serve the person emailing me.
Sundin and Lecavalier are both great, but I think Heatley will produce more points next year and Iginla has those PIM's with his points. Schneider is fantastic and Jovo will rebound next year, but I'd still stick with three of the four I mentioned.

Yahoo league, non-keeping, placed 3rd.

I have analyzed my current situation in my pool over and over again and
concluded that the only way to get #1 is by increasing PIM's, FW and goalie
stats. I traded for Belfour and also have Lalime (and Cujo), hoping to get
my goaltending going.

I added Chris Simon and he's doing a great job getting PIM's, but it's not
enough. And, has his status changed as NYR continues getting rid of key
players? I'm thinking of adding Sean Avery on a short term, but then I have
to let go of one player. In that case, I will have Morrison or Lecavalier +
Avery as my two starting centers. I also have Nedved, he is set to C/W, so
if I use him as a winger I will still get FW. Though, is it worth letting go
of one of Conroy/Simon/Lindros (also set as C/W = great, if he comes back?),
hoping that Avery will have a great week PIM-wise? For the record; Modano,
Yelle and Koivu are on waivers, so running the risk of losing Conroy might
not be that bad? If you never shoot, you'll never score.

Thanks for a great column!

/Dave

You've got to do what you've got to do in order to win. I can't see your league stats so take this with a grain of salt, but you may want to drop Morrison for Avery. PIM's is the easiest category to gain in and I also don't think Simon will lose any value with all of these guys shipping out of town. If anything, he gets more ice time.

Who are your top 30 (20 forwards and 10 defensemen) player choices for this years playoff hockey pool and who do you think will win the Stanley cup?

I've been getting this question more and more as we get closer to the playoffs, but we're not even anywhere near close enough for me to do anything like this. I'll have a bracket breaking down the matches once the regular season is over and picking some of the best players to draft from each team. I'll repeat to you what I imagine I'll be saying over and over until April comes around: parity being what it is, the playoffs get harder and harder to pick each year. Anaheim wiped out my Western picks last season.
Even we so-called "experts" are going to be hard pressed to get a 60-75% success rate for teams.

Hey Chris,

Great Column. Thanks for all of your help over the course of the season.
I'm in first place and our league playoffs (weekly games for the next two
weeks) are coming up. Tomas Kaberle is one of my 5 d-men (we start 4 each
week) and I am concerned that Brian Leetch is going to severely cut his
production. I can swap him for one of the following: Leopold, Slegr,
Hamhuis, Spacek, or Staios. Or I can just bench T.K. in favor of Brad
Stuart? I also have McCabe, so I will get some help from Leetch (I think)
as well as Kim Johnsson and Dan Boyle. Scoring is goals (5 pts), assists
(3 points), and plus/minus (.5 points). Any ideas? Thanks again.

J.P.

Dallas

Assuming the injury to Slegr is not serious, I'd sub Slegr in for Kaberle. Slegr looked good with Gonchar on the PP; similar to how McCabe and Leetch were clicking.
Have a fantasy hockey question? Drop me a line at chris_nichols@canoemail.com. I do my best to answer all questions within 24 hours, depending on the volume of emails. Please keep the questions short. Your fantasy questions may be answered in our Ask Slam! section.

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